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Source: Microsoft mulled an $8B bid for Slack, will focus on Skype instead

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Re: Source: Microsoft mulled an $8B bid for Slack, will focus on Skype instead

#81

Post by nuggien »

v64 wrote: post #76
ForHackernews wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does a tool display clickable hyperlinks? That's all the integration I (and I suspect many other people) care about. I can't even imagine what it might mean for " Stripe, Github, Trello, and Zendesk streams" to be integrated into Slack, or why I might want them to be. Want to share a gist with somebody? Just send a link to the gist to the chat channel, and people can click it.

I can't speak for the rest, but I personally use the GitHub integration to be notified in chat when builds have failed, pull requests are submitted and commented on, etc. Otherwise I end up having to keep GitHub open in a tab and refresh every minute.

I don't understand. Why would you have to have a github tab open and refresh? There have always been email notifications for all these events. Also, why is getting these notifications in chat preferred over email?

Re: Source: Microsoft mulled an $8B bid for Slack, will focus on Skype instead

#82

Post by Nagyman »

ForHackernews wrote: post #72
chishaku wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ICQ, Microsoft instant messenger ... slack like tools... I think people too often overlook Slack's integrations. Yes, Slack is "just" chat or "just" a glorified IRC. Or is it? I don't know how long it would take me to integrate my Stripe, Github, Trello, and Zendesk streams into IRC to the point where I could set it and forget it. I think for business users at least, using this type of setup _effectively_ could mak…

Does a tool display clickable hyperlinks? That's all the integration I (and I suspect many other people) care about. I can't even imagine what it might mean for " Stripe, Github, Trello, and Zendesk streams" to be integrated into Slack, or why I might want them to be. Want to share a gist with somebody? Just send a link to the gist to the chat channel, and people can click it.

Search is also a major feature.

For integrations, Github tells us when there's a PR. Yes, there's a clickable hyperlink, but I also get to know a bit more inline. It's additional context you don't get with only a hyperlink. There's less switching contexts when things are inlined ... it's a UX feature. I'd call it a feed of things happening across all of my apps, mixed with the ability to discuss those things in a standard place.

The integrations also give you shortcuts to actions without switching from your "command" line. Sure there are _some_ tools you can install on your local machine, but none make it this easy. Butterfield had the same success with Flickr (which yahoo subsequently destroyed) in making a killer user experience. That was for photos, Slack is for communication.

Re: Source: Microsoft mulled an $8B bid for Slack, will focus on Skype instead

#83

Post by jcurbo »

zyxley wrote: post #45
ue_ wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>get eclipsed every 5-10 years as a new generation comes along with a new favorite tool I wonder if this rule holds just as much for IRC - for most FOSS projects, IRC is the go-to choice, and it's been that way for a long time.

Many new FOSS projects are now using Slack instead of IRC, with a variety of methods for auto-inviting members of the public instead of Slack's intent of manually managing users. Another popular one now is Discord, which is Slack-like but anecdotally better for large sets of users because of a more robust admin/permissions scheme.

I use Discord for gaming (which seems to be their main market?) and it is amazing how nice it is. I wonder if Slack could just buy them and integrate the voice features into Slack, or introduce their own similar functionality. The voice stuff is seriously very nice and something that Slack doesn't do at all.

Re: Source: Microsoft mulled an $8B bid for Slack, will focus on Skype instead

#84

Post by zamalek »

reitanqild wrote: post #10

> Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and CEO Satya Nadella were among those unconvinced by the idea, with Gates pushing instead to add more features into Skype to make it more competitive with Slack in the business market, our source says. I'd say fix it first. Somehow the Skype name has gone from being an asset to being a liability to the point where I cannot understand why they renamed Lync to "Skype for business".

> fix it

Don't fix it, just rewrite it. Honestly. If they're focusing on Skype I think that would be great. The feats of that program are innumerable, including breaking system-wide sound settings. I simply can not fathom why it would want to change them.

As for "Skype for Business," it's significantly less stable than Skype. If Lync fails we switch to Skype.

Re: Source: Microsoft mulled an $8B bid for Slack, will focus on Skype instead

#85

Post by gffrd »

horsecaptin wrote: post #39

I've always thought of Skype as a personal product that was also used for business, and Slack as a primarily business oriented product. I'm afraid if Skype gets more features rammed into it for groupware, then it'll be even more bloated.

You, me, and everyone else.

That's Microsoft's issue with Skype: they fail to realize that the marketplace determines what a product is.*

If you took a well-known, purpose-built apartment building and converted it in to offices, you know what people would say? "Why would I set up my office in an apartment building?"

Regardless of how good they could make Skype, it's always going to be Skype: the cool thing you use to talk to your brother who's living in Costa Rica for the year.

— *That being said, if you've done your due diligence and really understand your audience, you can do a better job at creating a product that directs the attention of the user toward the thing you'd prefer.

Re: Source: Microsoft mulled an $8B bid for Slack, will focus on Skype instead

#86

Post by nthj »

ForHackernews wrote: post #72
chishaku wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ICQ, Microsoft instant messenger ... slack like tools... I think people too often overlook Slack's integrations. Yes, Slack is "just" chat or "just" a glorified IRC. Or is it? I don't know how long it would take me to integrate my Stripe, Github, Trello, and Zendesk streams into IRC to the point where I could set it and forget it. I think for business users at least, using this type of setup _effectively_ could mak…

Does a tool display clickable hyperlinks? That's all the integration I (and I suspect many other people) care about. I can't even imagine what it might mean for " Stripe, Github, Trello, and Zendesk streams" to be integrated into Slack, or why I might want them to be. Want to share a gist with somebody? Just send a link to the gist to the chat channel, and people can click it.

So a lot of times, on a project, maybe right after a production deploy, I'll just keep the production logs open on a spare monitor or a TV, and passively keep an eye on what's going on while working on other things. I'm not looking for anything specific: my intuition just kinda kicks in if something seems amiss. Suddenly jumped from a few errors a minute to a continual stream of backtraces? The logs stopped streaming entirely? I know it when I see it. Kinda like Cypher watching The Matrix.

Now, if I had to tab between panes across 2, 3, 6 app servers, background workers, and database instances, I just wouldn't bother. It's only useful as background noise. But that's fine, because there are tools that let me easily consolidate all of my logs into one stream.

And that's how I see Slack. Just like I can't get a notification every time I have one exception happen in production, because it would kill my workflow, I can't get a notification every time somebody updates a Trello card or resolves a Zendesk ticket. But what I /can/ do is passively watch the stream: Slack is the consolidated logfile, not for my production servers, but for my company.

Could I configure all that with IRC? Yes. Do I want to set it all up, when Slack lets me OAuth against every single service imaginable with one click? No, I really don't. My time is far more productively spent elsewhere.

Re: Source: Microsoft mulled an $8B bid for Slack, will focus on Skype instead

#87

Post by petergatsby »

lmm wrote: post #41
chollida1 wrote: post #7

I wonder if the outcome would have been different if Slack was incorporated outside of the US where Microsoft could use some of its non domiciled cash on the acquisition? http://www.ibtimes.com/microsoft-admits-keeping-92-billion-o... Also interesting to think that Slack could be worth so much. Look at ICQ, Microsoft instant messenger, etc. It seems as though slack like tools get eclipsed every 5-10 years as a new ge…

Frankly Slack's success is the utter failure of every alternative on the UX side. MSN messenger was perhaps wrong-footed by the shift to multi-device, but none of the other tools have such an excuse. It's not a generational thing, it's an incredible level of, there's no other word, incompetence on the part of the makers of major messaging software (Skype in particular).

100%

Re: Source: Microsoft mulled an $8B bid for Slack, will focus on Skype instead

#88

Post by Klathmon »

baddox wrote: post #70
chishaku wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ICQ, Microsoft instant messenger ... slack like tools... I think people too often overlook Slack's integrations. Yes, Slack is "just" chat or "just" a glorified IRC. Or is it? I don't know how long it would take me to integrate my Stripe, Github, Trello, and Zendesk streams into IRC to the point where I could set it and forget it. I think for business users at least, using this type of setup _effectively_ could mak…

Slack seems to have mostly eclipsed Hipchat, at least among Silicon Valley startups, but integrations probably weren't a huge factor in that. Slack does have a nicer flow for integrations, but Hipchat worked quite well (and actually had much-missed features like customizing the background color of messages; it's unfathomable how Slack could still not have this feature).

>it's unfathomable how Slack could still not have this feature

I hear this saying a lot, and every time I just can't take it seriously.

This is the first time I've ever heard of someone wanting customizable background colors for messages on a messaging platform. It's just not something I or anyone I know about cares about.

I just can't see how that would be considered a high importance feature by anyone.

Re: Source: Microsoft mulled an $8B bid for Slack, will focus on Skype instead

#89

Post by GFischer »

douche wrote: post #48
justinv wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree. Especially when you actually open "Skype for Business" it says "Microsoft Lync" at the top. It's a mess.

They've finally fixed this with the last update to the Skype for Business client. It's still a huge clusterfuck of a rebranding. The two clients are just barely compatible, and it's a huge mess when you're building a Skype for Business tool, and the users think they can use regular Skype to do anything with it. Hopefully "investing in Skype" is a code word for building out an API for Office 365 Skype integrations tha…

They have regularly bought out companies in that space (last one was Ray Ozzie's Talko, in December, and they specifically said "Talko was acquired to help fuel future innovation in Skype and Skype for Business. As part of the Skype team, we’ll leverage Talko’s technology and the many things we’ve learned during its design and development.").

Let's hope they actually benefit from those.

http://betanews.com/2015/12/21/microsoft-cops-talko-for-skyp...

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